WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. THIS BLOG HAS BEEN CALLED "THE DEFINITIVE BLOG ON MIAMI CRIMINAL LAW" BY THE NY TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE POPE, AND DONALD TRUMP WHO ALSO ONCE SAID IT WAS "REALLY GREAT". POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

THE MIAMI CONNECTION

There was a time in the not too distant past when Miami and the Dade State Attorneys office was one of the premier prosecution offices in the nation. And there was a time when, as a nation teetered on the brink of a constitutional crisis and a president was facing impeachment, the Miami SAO was in the middle of the biggest political investigation of the 20th century. Watergate is synonymous with all political scandals. When the democratic national committee's (DNC) offices in the Watergate hotel were burglarized by five men- four of them from Miami- Frank Sturgis, Bernard Baker, Eugenio Martinez, and Virgilio Gonzalez, a Miami connection arose that needed investigation. Enter Legendary Miami State Attorney Richard Gerstein and his equally legendary chief investigator Martin Dardis. Dardis learned that the burglars had sequentially numbered one hundred dollar bills on them. Dardis traced the bills to a bank in Miami, where he learned that Bernard Baker- one of the burglars- had cashed a check drawn on the account of Kenneth Dahlberg. Who was Dahlberg? Only the 1972 Midwest Finance Chairman for the aptly named CREEP- Committee to re-elect the President. All of the sudden Dardis had linked the burglars to the committee to re-elect the President and we had on our hands a full blown national political scandal that brought down a president. And at the beginning of it all, and in many ways in the middle of it all, was the chief investigator of the Miami State Attorneys Office, back when the office had a national reputation for investigative and prosecutorial excellence. From Occupied America, where we are waiting for the next shoe to fall in the current administration, Fight The Power!

7:17 - "Follow the money" was said by Deep Throat to the reporters who uncovered Watergate, leading to hearings and resignation of a crooked president, and incarceration of his crooked men. That is an example of government succeeding, not failing. Patriots make sure our leaders comply with our laws. Patriots do not root for a cover-up of our leaders' crimes.

"Follow the money" is from Watergate. We have something else to follow in Trumpgate - "the trail of dead Russians," according to someone who sounds like a patriot to me:

Meanwhile, up on Capitol Hill, a former FBI agent and cyber-security expert by the name of Clint Watts was blowing everyone’s mind with his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, in which he said the Russians meddled in the GOP primary, targeting Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Watts claimed that Trump and various associates helped the effort by parroting Russian propaganda during the campaign.

He uttered a line that may very well end up being remembered the same way that John Dean’s famous “there is a cancer on the presidency” is remembered. Watts told the committee to “follow the trail of dead Russians,” referring to the recent spate of prominent Russians who have died under mysterious circumstances, if it wants to find clues about the Russian money-laundering operation Watts suspects is at the center of all this.

Holy shit, it's your blog and you can run it how you will. And yes, I still read it. But holy shit. Is this really going to be an anti-Trump blog for the next four or eight year?

Rush Limbaugh first invented the "Day 155 of the Occupation" meme during the Clinton years. Are you comfortable with turning the blog into an alternate-flavor Rush Limbaugh show? But Dem instead of GOP. Pepsi instead of Coke?

And if you or your readers *wanted* to spend five or ten minutes online to marinate in anti-Trump juice, aren't there a dozen - perhaps a hundred - other places for them to go? Namely, CNNs front page every single day, the NYT, the WaPo, as well as Slate, Salon, HuffPo, Jezebel, BuzzFeed, DailyKos, Motherjones, etc etc? Why come to the Miami criminal courts blog to get all moist about presidential politics?

10:15, you are absolutely right. I come here to read about the stuff that goes on in our REGB, not in Washington DC. This used to be a great blog, now it is one more of many websites with Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Trump is not only the worst president ever elected, but the most dangerous one as well. We must be alert, informed, and mobilized. How can you care more about petty gossip than the security of our country?

Yes, please, continue to be a voice for those of us lawyers who look on in horror every day about what's happening to this country. It's a comfort, thanks. REG gossip is very small beer in these times.